Journalists in exile 2012

Crisis in East Africa

Fifty-seven journalists fled their country in the past year, with Somalia sending the
greatest number into exile. Journalists also fled Ethiopia, Eritrea, and
Rwanda--mostly for Kenya and Uganda. Exiles in East Africa must grapple with
poverty and fear. A CPJ special report by María Salazar-Ferro and Tom Rhodes

Published June 19, 2012

NEW YORKTwenty-year-old Horriyo Abdulkadir worked hard to become a journalist. A dedicated multitasker, she edited, produced, and presented at local Radio Galkayo in north central Somalia while corresponding for the Mogadishu-based Radio Risaale. She covered the Somali conflict, focusing on gender and humanitarian issues. Late in the afternoon of September 14, 2011, unknown assailants shot Horriyo five times as she was leaving work. “The actual attack was not the most painful moment because it happened so fast,” she said. “It was the time afterward—I was terrified.” Days later, needing further medical attention and fearing more violence, Horriyo left for Nairobi.

Since
June 2011, seven journalists have fled
Somalia—making it the
country with the highest number of journalists forced into exile in this 12-month
period. It is closely followed by conflict-ridden Syria and Pakistan. Three other
East African countries—Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Rwanda—also rank among
the top 10. In fact, while the global number of journalists going into exile
has decreased to 57 cases from 67 in the previous period, the proportion
of East African exiles remains steady. More than a quarter of those who fled
their homes from June 2011 to May 2012 came from an East African nation.

A
majority of exiled journalists, like Horriyo, cited fear of violence as their
reason for leaving; some fled after being attacked. (Their fears are justified;
in Somalia, for example, six journalists have been killed in 2012, and no journalist
murders have been prosecuted since 1992.) Others fled threats of prison
and judicial harassment, common in Ethiopia and Rwanda, according to CPJ
research. While reasons for fleeing into exile vary, the results are universal:
Exiled journalists are subject to fear, poverty, and uncertainty, while
conditions for free expression deteriorate in the countries they leave behind.

Zerihun
Tesfaye, the 29-year-old senior political reporter for the critical Ethiopian
weekly Addis Neger, is among the 49 Ethiopian journalists forced into exile over the past five years. He and almost
all of the paper’s news staff left in December 2009, closing the publication.
In July of that year, a new anti-terrorism
law
criminalized any reporting deemed to “encourage” or “provide moral support” to
groups labeled terrorists. A government paper accused Addis Neger of making false “anti-state” allegations, and having
ties to banned opposition groups. “When we heard the government was trying to
charge our reporters and editors using the anti-terror proclamation, we decided
to flee,” Zerihun said. In 2011, 11 independent journalists were charged under
the law—six in absentia, because they are in exile.

In
neighboring Eritrea, Africa’s leading jailer of journalists, 28 remain behind
bars.
Ten were arrested during a 2001 crackdown. In December
that year, Aaron Berhane and Semret Seyoum, staffers for the biweekly Setit, and a fixer were ambushed and shot at while
trying to cross into Sudan. “I thought it was the end of my life,” Aaron said. “But
I preferred to die than be tortured and reveal my sources, so I ran.” Aaron
made it into Sudan, then Kenya, and eventually went on to Canada. Semret and
the fixer were detained. Semret, released a year later, fled to Sweden. No one
has heard from the fixer since.

In
Sudan, Aaron was terrified by the rumored presence of Eritrean security forces
said to kidnap refugees. Other exiled journalists, including Iranians in Iraq and
Turkey, have expressed similar fears. These are also common among those living
in Kenya and Uganda, the two hubs for exiled East African journalists—Kenya
hosts 52 exiles, Uganda 24, by CPJ’s count.

Rwandans
Charles Kabonero, Richard Kayigamba, and Didas Gasana fled in 2009 to Kampala. At
home, they had worked for the independent weekly Umuseso. The journalists say they were harassed from the time they launched the website The Newsline in the summer of 2010. Local
police warned them that unidentified individuals carrying Kabonero’s photo had
been arrested, and that as a precaution they should stop writing. Weeks later, a
Rwandan official gave a European diplomat, who had hosted them for dinner, minute
details of the journalists’ activities. “At that point,” said Kabonero, “it
became evident that we were being followed.” The journalists identified their trackers:
Rwandan security officials they knew from Kigali. Then, in August 2011,
Kayigamba and Gasana found several men outside their home. One said in
Kinyarwanda, “Those are the people we are seeking.” As they ran, one of the men
managed to grab Kayigamba’s T-shirt, but he got away.

In
December 2011, Rwandan reporter Charles Ingabire was murdered in
Kampala. He had recently launched the Inyenyeri News, a critical website
popular in Rwanda and Uganda. His death—still unsolved—intensified fears among
exiled journalists in Kampala and Nairobi.

Kabonero
and his colleagues increased their security protocol—residing far from other
Rwandans; leaving the house only for basic necessities and never doing so
alone; and regularly checking in with Ugandan authorities. “We lived a really
terrible life,” said Kabonero, “but it was the only life we had to live.” A month
after Ingabire’s shooting, Kabonero and Gasana were resettled to Sweden by the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Kayigamba, once a
soldier in the Rwandan army, is not eligible for resettlement by the UNHCR. He
said he lives in permanent fear.

Refugee process full of
challenges

Exiled
journalists in Nairobi are more likely to be harassed by local police. They
told CPJ that officers routinely stop them and ask for bribes in exchange for
not arresting them. “They go directly to your pockets,” said Abdikafar Shire,
who fled Mogadishu in 2005 after repeated threats. “They don’t care about your
documentation.”

Even
so, documentation is essential for journalists in exile, and often hard to get.
Since March 2011, refugee registration in Kenya is handled by the government’s
Department of Refugee Affairs and the UNHCR. (Previously, the task had been solely
managed by the UNHCR.) In Uganda, the process is handled by the office of the
prime minister. In both countries, the process involves initial registration,
interviews, and the eventual issue of official refugee papers that allow access to basic services such as primary education and health care.

The
process in Uganda can take up to three months, said Sylvia Samanya, a protection officer
at the prime minister’s office. In Kenya, the process can last up to a year and
cause much anxiety. According to Ethiopian reporter Zerihun, who has been in
Nairobi for more than two years, “waiting is the most frustrating thing
happening in exiled life.”

In
at least one case, the extended process had fatal ramifications. Veteran Somali
journalist Hassan Mohamed visited the
UNHCR as soon as he arrived in Nairobi in January 2011, but was told to return
in 2012. A diabetic with other health complications, Hassan became seriously
ill in March 2011, after months without medication that he could not get
without documentation. Following several hospitalizations and a weeklong coma,
Hassan died in March 2012. By then, he was a registered refugee, but the toll on
his body had been taken. The UNHCR estimates that there are almost as many
unregistered refugees as those who are registered in Nairobi.

Finding
work is also crucial for exiled journalists. In Nairobi, refugees need an official
work permit, granted by the government, which is expensive and difficult to
obtain. “Very few people are able to get them,” said a UNHCR protection officer
in Nairobi, who asked not to be identified per the agency’s practice. Journalists
who spoke to CPJ said that hunting for other kinds of jobs is difficult because
of xenophobia among host populations. A few string for local or international
outlets, and many work for independent websites that do not remunerate them.
Instead, journalists said they often rely on grants from international
organizations like CPJ to cover basic needs.

All
of these challenges are intensified by a lack of information. Many journalists
said they knew nothing about the refugee process or life in exile prior to
fleeing. “I had no time to ask what Nairobi life looks like. It was not my
intention to be here. I just came to save my life,” Zerihun said. Journalists often
lack information about refugee rights and the exact responsibilities of the
UNHCR and host governments. The UNCHR protection officer said that registered
refugees are handed a booklet in major local languages with this information and
that the UNHCR hosts periodic forums to address questions. Mark Weinberg, a regional
refugee coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, agreed that misinformation
is a serious challenge. “No matter how much we try to get the message out
there,” he said, “I fear that the rumor mill always triumphs.”

The
UNHCR officer said a lot remains to be accomplished. “The main hurdle for us is
that we have very few resources,” he said. Local authorities are also under-resourced,
he added. For example, he said, the often overburdened local police can’t
provide appropriate security for refugees while also dealing with Nairobi’s
high crime rate.

High cost for exiled journalists

The
journalist refugee crisis of East Africa has now spanned more than a decade,
taking a serious toll on the region’s press freedom. With 14 journalists forced
out of Rwanda, 27 from Eritrea, 49 from Ethiopia, and a whopping 78 out of
Somalia over the past five years, the region’s media landscape is devastated,
exiled journalists told CPJ. Somali reporter Abdikafar lamented that violence
and exile had wiped out the country’s most professional outlets. His colleague
Horriyo said that with so many journalists gone, those left to report inside
the country don’t have proper training. Eritreans, Ethiopians, and Rwandans told
similar stories of desolation.

All
the journalists in exile share an uncertain future. While Zerihun has no hope
of returning to Ethiopia, Horriyo would go back to Somalia in a heartbeat if
there was peace. “When you go into exile, at first it doesn’t feel like a good
thing because you’ve left everything behind,” concluded Eritrean editor Aaron. “But
then you are also grateful to have a new life.”

CPJ
is releasing its annual survey of journalists in exile to mark World Refugee
Day, June 20. This year, CPJ cut the period in which it tracks exiles from 10
years to five, in order to effect a more complete account. CPJ’s survey counts
only those journalists who fled due to work-related persecution, who remained
in exile for at least three months, and whose current whereabouts and
activities are known. It does not include the many journalists and media
workers who left their countries for professional or financial opportunities,
those who left due to general violence, or those who were targeted for
activities other than journalism, such as political activism. CPJ's survey is
based solely on cases it has documented, from which it derives global trends.
Other groups using different criteria cite higher numbers of journalists in
exile.